The "Standard of Ur" from ancient Mesopotamia

18 June 2013

Clarion and Clarion West Write-a-Thons start Sunday

For the next six weeks, graduates and friends of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop will be raising money to support Clarion, a workshop that has produced many well-known writers, primarily in the sf/f genre. Clarion grads include two of my own Clarion teachers—Robert Crais and Kim Stanley Robinson—as well as notables such as Tobias Bucknell, Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Cory Doctorow, Gregory Frost...and on and on through the alphabet.

During the Write-a-Thon, you can support the Clarion workshop—and ensure its continued production of awesome sf/f writers—in any of several ways.

Sign up as a writer and collect pledges and donations in your name. The process is simple, and making public your writing-related goals for the summer is a great motivator to actually work on and complete your projects. Interested? Learn more or sign up here.

Sponsor me and my summer project. My project for the Write-a-Thon is to write two short stories. To make a pledge or donation to encourage me, sign up here.

Sponsor writers you know or admire who are participating in the Write-a-Thon. The list of writers who have signed up is here. You can click on each person's name to find out something about them and what project they are doing during the Write-a-Thon. If you want to support several writers, Clarion has made the process simple. Start here.

No time? No money? Spread the word through your social media: blogs, Websites, Twitter accounts, Facebook page, or whatever else you do. You can grab some cool Write-a-Thon badges here.

Clarion's goal for this Write-a-Thon is to sign up at least 225 writers and to collect donations of at least $18,000.

Donations go to support the workshop in general and to scholarships to help students who otherwise could not afford to attend Clarion.

Donations are tax deductible if you itemize deductions on your U.S. federal tax form for 2013, to the extent allowed by law.

Clarion's sister workshop, Clarion West, will be running its own Write-a-Thon at the same time, 23 June to 3 August. You can sign up as a writer, see who has already signed up, or donate directly to one or multiple writers here.

Thank you for reading this post and for helping the Clarion workshops in any way you can.